Play Book Tag discussion

Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System from Crisis — and Themselves by Andrew Ross Sorkin - 4* - My Review

“At its core Too Big to Fail is a chronicle of failure - a failure that brought the world to its knees and raised questions about the very nature of capitalism. It is an intimate portrait of the dedicated and often baffled individuals who struggled… to spare the world and themselves an even more calamitous outcome. It would be comforting to say that all the characters depicted in this book were able to cast aside their own concerns… and join together to prevent the worse from happening. But as you’ll see, in making their decisions, they were not immune to the fierce rivalries and power grabs that are part of the long-established cultures on Wall Street and in Washington. In the end this drama is a human one, a tale about the fallibility of people who thought they themselves were too big to fail.”

This book follows the key people and businesses involved in the 2008 Financial Crisis. It goes into the details of conversations, conference calls, executive-level meetings, deals that almost took place, and who said what. It documents the sequence of events from the time of the initial warning bells, the fall of Bear Stearns, and ends with the “bailout” and its immediate aftermath. It takes the reader behind the scenes of the financial markets and is based upon hundreds of interviews. Published in 2009, it does not analyze the reasons behind the collapse, other than at a very high level.

The author focuses in on Lehman Brothers and, to a lesser extent, on American International Group (AIG) as the centerpiece of the narrative. There is a very large cast of characters (a helpful list is provided), which can occasionally be a bit overwhelming, but overall, I found it an easy-to-follow, page-turning chronicle. Sorkin sticks to the facts with little editorializing. It contains plenty of business and financial jargon and could have benefited from a bit more explanation for those not fully versed in these topics. It is a lengthy book (over 600 pages) and I think a few details (such as who drinks what types of beverages), could have been eliminated and not lost any of the important information. Recommended to anyone with a desire to understand the chain of events during the Financial Crisis.

PBT Comments: If you are interested in this topic, I can also recommend: The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis. Taken together, these provide a fairly comprehensive picture of the 2008 Financial Crisis.

I'm pretty sure this was adapted into a mini-series or a movie that I watched. Definitely a book I've considered reading given I had a front row seat both as a lawyer and a New Yorker. It's a little too vivid yet - though 15 years later - for me to really want to read this yet.

Theresa wrote: "I'm pretty sure this was adapted into a mini-series or a movie that I watched. Definitely a book I've considered reading given I had a front row seat both as a lawyer and a New Yorker. It's a littl..."
I can only imagine how that must have felt for you. I think it was made into an HBO movie.